Riki Lane and Maureen Murphy
W e were in East Timor for ten days, and followed up work on union Ð union links and a proposed training tour. We talked to a number of organisations:
An important NGO that we did not get to meet is "Lao Hamutuk" (Walking Together), who were well respected by the PST, expatriate NGOs and Fretilin members.
The economic situation
The UN left East Timor in a poor state. They ensured that accommodation, power etc were available for the duration of the UNTAET mission, not for the long term. Although there has been enormous rebuilding since 1999, all infrastructure is very poorly developed.
There is little or no industrial working class in East Timor. What exists is mostly in hospitality, construction and small-scale mining. The largest companies are Australian, e.g. ET Plumbing and Gas, ET Constructions, and employ a maximum of 100 workers. The largest sector is civil servants, who are relatively privileged. There are perhaps 15,000 workers in Dili, out of a population of 150,000.
Wages are generally about US$85 per month, which is higher than in Indonesia. However, the cost of living is also higher as many commodities are imported. The labour code adopted on 1 May 2002 is very weak.
The coffee industry is reorganising. Tourism is very undeveloped, especially for backpackers. Most of the population is engaged in subsistence agriculture. People are friendly, but surprised to see foreigners (malai) on foot, or the local transport. There is little of the begging or hard sell that is endemic in many Asian countries with a large tourism industry.
Political situation
Fretilin dominates the political scene. When the CNRT broke up, Fretilin had already prepared local structures and is the only party present in all parts of the country. They have an enormous amount of respect due to their uncompromising and successful leadership of the struggle for independence.
Fretilin in government are implementing the program laid down by the World Bank et al Ð who provide the finances. They have retreated from their radical 1975 platform and appear to discourage political mass mobilisation.
Parliament is not functioning effectively Ð we were told the Budget for the next five years was only debated for five hours and that parliament sits for only two hours a day. Most elected politicians spend the rest of the day learning Portuguese. Having Portuguese as the official language causes many problems. Translations of laws and official documents into Bahasa Indonesia (the most commonly spoken language) are often unreliable.
The civil service is bureaucratic and it is difficult to find out who is responsible for anything, let alone get to see them, unless you have good connections.
Mari Alkatari, the Prime Minister, is seen as hard line and having the potential to limit democratic space. He has apparently taken almost sole responsibility for negotiations on the ET Gap Oil Treaty, where he is taking a strong position.
Xanana Gusmao, the President, is the Nelson Mandela figure of East Timor politics. He advocates reconciliation with the pro-Indonesian elements, with only ex-militia guilty of serious crimes to be tried. Others in Fretilin are less sanguine about reintegrating ex-militia.
Some issues identified by a senior Fretilin member we spoke to were:
Other parties include the Democratic Party (PD, seven MPs) who have some radical young members and the Social Democratic Party (PSD). In all, there are about 14 parties in parliament.
The ET Gap Oil and Gas Treaty is one of the hottest political issues in East Timor. It is also the one with huge relevance in Australia, as the ET Government seeks to get a fair division of the seabed. The current treaty includes most of a highly prospective area in AustraliaÕs zone, while international law would put most of it in East TimorÕs. Another question is where the gas pipeline will land Ð East Timor or the Northern Territory. Thousands of jobs are at stake in construction and in the ongoing processing plant.
PST, SBST and KSTL
The PST seems militant, active and self-confident. They are evidently busy, and not so willing to spare time for political tourists. When we suggested that English language training might be a possible form of assistance, the response was that it would need to be for 6 months minimum and the trainer would need to finance their own accommodation etc. They see it as up to Australian socialists, including Socialist Alliance, to develop concrete proposals about how we can assist them.
The PST has one MP. It criticises the Fretilin Government for its pro-capitalist course and refers to the 1975 program of Fretilin as a basic document.
The union wing of the PST is the SBST, which is "integrated into the structures of the party". SBST is militant and committed to building a union movement with revolutionary politics. Their focus is on direct action around particular disputes, not on building up regular trade union structures. Instead the aim is to build the PST and its affiliated organisations. They maintain youth and farmer organisations on a similar basis.
They also maintain an independent body, ComeAlright, which has mediation, advocacy, workers education, language classes, and translation roles. This seemed to be the organisation for which they were seeking most material support.
The KSTL has political and financial backing from the ACTU, ICFTU and ILO via APHEDA. They maintain a position of non-affiliation to any political party and they are active over the Timor Gap oil and gas treaty. They participate in a cross-sectoral coalition called Timor Gap Watch.
Sectoral organisations in port/harbour, medical/nurses, teachers, journalists, musicians and construction workers were brought together under the KSTL confederation. These groups were not really unions, more like professional associations. The KSTL are set to launch a union to organise agricultural workers, where they have previously been focussed on Dili. Australian unions have emphasised to them the need to create a base that pays membership dues. They hope to achieve this by the end of the year.
The impression we gained was that the KSTL were trying to build a reformist, class-collaborationist trade union movement along the usual lines Ð tripartite negotiations etc. Their politics are comparable to a centre-left Australian TU. They seem to be somewhat top-down, but focussed on building up genuine industrial union structures. They identified the main issues for workers as unfair dismissal and the lack of formal employment contracts.
The PST had a very hostile attitude to the KSTL, saying it was a creation of the government, just like the SPSI under Suharto. The PST says that the KSTL does not organise workers, but makes agreements over their heads. They also said that they would refuse to work with any organisation that worked with the KSTL. This was a matter of principle Ð so Australian trade unions (and other groups) had to make a choice.
We explained that we understood this model of union organising, which is very common in the Philippines, for example, but that we disagreed with it. we prefer industrial unionism where revolutionaries fight for leadership against reformist currents.
(Since this was written, Jon Lamb from the DSP suggests that the analogy with the Philippines is not so useful Ð where there is a large working class with a long history of union organisation. In East Timor, there is very little history of unionism and the union movement is to be built from the ground up.)
Even if the PST's description of the KSTL's relation to the government were true, it would have a different character to the SPSI due to the different nature of the Fretilin government to the Suharto regime. The PST recognised this by having implementation of the 1975 Fretilin platform as a central plank of their election platform. The KSTL says it is independent of the government, even if it works closely with it. Its central leader is close to the main opposition party, PD.
The PST is perfectly able to make their own judgements on the KSTL. However, to prescribe to Australian trade unions that they must only deal with the SBST seems very sectarian. It possibly reflects a lack of understanding of the nature of the Australian union movement Ð where militants and sellouts, revolutionaries and reactionaries coexist. The PST's ultimatum makes it almost impossible to get any union to work with the SBST.
There has already been work done to build a trade union tour to train East Timorese workers in how to remove asbestos. This involves the KSTL, the CFMEU, activists in Melbourne such as Chloe Beaton and in Brisbane such as Jeff Rickertt and Lauren Want from AIUS. I think that it is likely that the CFMEU would be prepared to meet with and possibly assist the SBST. It is very unlikely they would do so to the exclusion of the KSTL.
The KSTL has many international links and material support, while the PST and the SBST seem to have very little. Socialists in Australia need to develop relations with the PST, while not opposing links with the KSTL and other groups. We need to work to explain the nature of the Australian trade union movement to the PST.
Australian socialists, inside and outside Socialist Alliance, have a particular responsibility to support the struggle of East Timorese workers, farmers and socialist. "Our" Government and "our" capitalists play a dominant role.
Ideas for solidarity
1. look for ways to agitate around the ET Gap Oil and Gas Treaty, in cooperation with existing solidarity organisations
2. seek comradely relations with the PST and consider what support we can offer. Some ideas Ð a) English and Marxism lessons on a rolling basis, b) material support Ð PCs etc, c) political support Ð Marxist texts in Bahasa, d) possibility of tour of Australia by a PST leader.
3. comrades who are going to East Timor and want to meet with the PST should contact them beforehand and see if it is possible to have useful contact Ð bring things they want etc.
4. explain the nature of the Australian labour movement and encourage them to accept contact with organisations that also have contact with the KSTL.
5. attempt to facilitate union to union contacts with the SBST, ComeAlright and KSTL where we have influence. In particular, work with relevant unions to identify the Australian companies in East Timor and support the struggles of their workers.